Today Was A Good Day
Today was a good day.

It started with sleeping in a bit, then meeting up with my daughter, Desiree, so that we could make it for the grand reopening of "Whole Foods" on Magazine Street at 8:45 am.

We were delighted with the fact that the store was finally reopening because it meant not only a terrific store was coming back to our neighborhood, but also that New Orleans is coming back.

The store was abuzz with locals that were just as thrilled to see it reopen as we were. I didn't even mind the fact that I had to circle the store four times to find a parking place, something that in the past would have had me muttering like a long shore man.

We found our parking spot, got a buggy and off into the store we went. We were greeted by a full fledged jazz band playing live and KNEW we were home. Only in New Orleans would you have a jazz band and a brass band playing live for a grocery store reopening.

Free food and drink samples were abundant all through the store, and before we could even get to the second isle, we found we needed a second buggy. I knew what my weakness was going to be, however...Whole Foods was open again...this meant that Whole Foods' CHEESE DEPARTMENT was going to be open again!!!! There has to be cheese in heaven, right?

After Desiree made us start at the opposite end of the store, we weaved our way around the entire store, picking up odds and ends...pacing ourselves, and getting old familiar items that we'd waited so many months to get again, like Hansen's drinks, and organic portabellos and meats, and we even picked up a few things that they had on sale as part of their promotional sales for the reopening. I guess I will be trying my hand at buffalo ribeyes on the grill.

After what seemed to be an hour, okay, it WAS an hour...we finally made it over to the CHEESE DEPARTMENT, where they had samples...and where I proceeded to fill up the majority of my buggy. My rational behind this is that I am female, and as such, females need a certain amount of calcium in their diet every day to maintain strong bones and to prevent osteoporosis, right??? Okay, it sounded good, anyway. It must've sounded good to Desiree, because I stocked up on a ton of it and sent half of it home to her house without any argument.

We then went over to the wine department and picked up a couple of wines that we knew we both liked, and then we got with a couple of the "experts" and got them to check over our cheese purchases to help us figure out what would be good compliments for them. One of the guys told us that if we got 6 bottles or more, then we would get 10% off, so we should put them all in the same buggy (I told Desiree he always was my favorite guy in that department. She asked me if I didn't just meet him. I told her "yeah, but he was still always my favorite". She smiled and agreed and helped me transfer the wines to my buggy.)

Two hours later, we left there and headed home with our purchases and were elated.

I plan to put on my ipod tonight, soak in my Victorian bathtub, light candles, have a few grapes and some cheese on the little table beside the bathtub, a glass of wine, and stay there until I wrinkle like a raisin. I may even let the water out and refill it with warmer water again. Ahhhhhhhhhhh....does it get any better?